rapturerebornmmorpgfandomcom-20200216-history
Part 103
Sitemap --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- - More interesting items/ideas for a BioShock Rapture MMORPG --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- - Part 103 --- --- --- --- All Roads (Tears) Lead to Columbia ' : 1912 (Convergence Time !!!) Spinosaurus is discovered in Egypt (a real event). Imagine a 'Tear' opening back to 92 million years previous, and one of those monsters coming through to terrorize Columbia. Much more interesting for the game (and no problem with copyrights/trademarks...) Maybe even it would be a REAL reason for the militarized look of Columbia - once those Tears started opening then there was no stopping them (or what might come out of them !!!) --- --- '''Old Plasmids/Tonics/EVE ' : Actually, in all the game timeframes ADAM and EVE still being manufactured. Some items we used were next to long dead corpses that seem to have been laying in place for years. Mentioned Previous - Lamb's apparently not caring about health issues by leaving corpses lying about for years - even in Persephone were she actually lived -- and in that damp environment - the SMELL in Rapture might've been really impressive if we had THAT element in the game ). ADAM traces must act as some kind of preservative/deodorizer (Yuck, too many coroner/CSI scenes on TV shows). Supposedly (?) EVE is made from ADAM somehow (and maybe we really don't want to know how THAT is done, after knowing what Little Sisters do for ADAM.) It is more like a biological FUEL that your Plasmids required, so it can be a much simpler substance (and probably one that was synthesized). Some EVE you get from (on) Splicers you just killed, and at least those could be 'fresh'. With sufficient purity, the EVE may last a really long time (unless that blue glowing IS using up some chemicals for the Bioluminescence, like Luciferin uses ATP -- thought that really IS just a game feature, and need not be required on the MMORPG). Old defective Plasmids and Tonics (and Bootlegged inferior quality ones) may be a big hazard in the MMORPG. Players won't be using them much - except in Flashbacks, but the effects will be seen for the Splicers still out there who do. --- --- --- 'Those "Blue Butterflies" (of Lamb's) - - kindof a "Silence of the LAMBS" vibes there ' : Psycho Analyzing Lamb, she really had a hatred for humanity, and her actions were aimed at destroying it in revenge for her own limitations and weaknesses. A true Folly, to try to attempt to destroy Human Nature - resulting in little more than enforced slavery and death. --- --- --- 'Vox 'Soldiers' ... : ' Yeah right. Asset creators (or game authors who OK'd that stuff) need to Google 'insurgency' to see how 'rebels' typically equip themselves. Likewise, the game designers don't seem to have a clue about what real uniforms and equipment look like for the period (or any other time). They might have at least actually looked at real uniforms to find something appropriate. * Bulky shit gets in your way (try running after that rock throwing punk...) * Padding doesn't stop bullets. "You can always tell a Founder - they bring a club to a gunfight" (Note - guns can be perfectly fine to be used to beat people, and then instantly turn into projectile firing weapons - no need for separate/specialized hand weapons for such fighting). * Bags over your head are great for blocking your view, impairing your movement, suffocating you, and getting you quickly killed when the fighting starts. Pretty damn lame idea - but no doubt 'it looked good' (The game artists need to be sentenced to wear such bags for a week for being so dim and ignorant). Helped to make the 'enemies' less human, so there's less problem with murdering them all. * The Heavy Hitters - great for tearing apart and setting fire to the City. Not much use against rebels who move fast and simply avoid clumsy high powered units. Empowered police have done just fine throughout history. "City/street fighting" - Google it. Ordinary guns work fine to dissuade a rebellious underclass. * City is built in blocks - there's no problem isolating and exterminating the rebels piecemeal. And NO, skyline movement just makes for a very convenient shooting gallery situation. Informers would have put an end to 'the Vox' in any such real situation. The place is just too limited in size, and what is shown (Its America, 1912 ... remember ... Yeaahh....) is a full blown Police State (If this is Levine's idea of 1912 America, HE should ask for a refund for his education, or stop smoking whatever it is). --- --- --- 'Frank L Baum's Solution ' : In the middle of Infinite BS, Elizabeth suddenly wakes up restrained in an Insane Asylum's therapy room as the psychiatrist is preparing to administer her corrective Lobotomy. Elizabeth is in an Asylum because she had constantly suffered strange and terrible episodes of fantasy, and often became violent (trying to drown people) and self-destructive. Some little time later, once the procedure was done, her waking nightmares about "Columbia" ended forever. --- --- --- 'Columbia attacks Chicago Stockards - News at 11 ' : Columbia's religiosity forced its Citizens to be Vegetarian (and the 'holy' one is Vegan ...) - Nah, too divisive for the PC game developers (despite any/all claims of 'pushing the envelope'). Attacking Christianity is too passé these days, and hardly warrants notice. On the other hand, they would fear the backlash from being accused of attacking veggies ... --- --- --- 'MMORPG - So where are the Dwarves, Elves, Orcs ' ? Comstock and Fink might've had their Oompa-Loompas (Hobbits) slaving away underground, but no such existed in Rapture. (Ryan, you see, was a Real American...) --- --- --- 'Columbia in Seperate Chunks ' : Neat idea (even if illogical) to have blocks of the city moving independently and reconnecting at different points on a Schedule (so you want to wait 4 hours before returning from that one shop ?) Anyway, that and with the other separate floaty sections of the City, you NOW have to guide and coordinate (and correct) the SEPERATE 3 Dimensional movements of each chunk 24/7 (including at night) - manually or semi-automatically (and keep them from ramming into each other - realtime (today) RR boxcars are bad enough and they bang together all the time). Remember the maneuvering controls and auto-pilots (and whatever) there are all run on gears and maybe electric relays (sorry, Quantumz aren't smart) and are subject to catastrophic human errors of all sorts. But, But, But "Its Only A Game" .... Yeah and having Gumby and Giant Garfield God in Call of Duty would still be "Only A Game", but too would be incredibly stupid. Its Its Its an Allegory !!! (for the 1912 evil religious American racist whiteman - yeah, right, and Ken Levine is a giant hedgehog named Spiney Norman.) --- --- --- 'Cobblestone Streets and Rock Slab Sidewalks - How Backward even for 1893 ' : For something built as an Exposition "Show City", to show/expound/highlight the progress of technology and modernity (by America), it is kind of a strange selection (as in ILLOGICAL). But then game developers aren't known for their real understandings of (or caring for) reality and "The way things really work". Perhaps, cobblestone makes it easier to pry up a nice big Stone to hurl at the bigotry-designated "Evil Ones", as Americans routinely/constantly did (at least according to Ken Levine). I say such things to comment upon the cheap "Nostalgia" the game writers employed (as in rote copying old photographs) versus a logical progression (requiring imaginative speculation) from THAT premise/starting-point on towards having the game reflecting a Society affected by the radical New Technologies. --- --- --- 'Business Cards (Just Like Old Times in Rapture) ' : MMORPG NPCs you meet (and Businesses you visit) can have business cards (at least one easy interaction for them instead of the typical MMORPG Mannequin Behavior) Players can have their own Cards - and a stylishly printed one facilitates (Player) Prestige. Various motifs and patterns (more Player Creation Assets and appropriate tools). These can can show the Player's available NPC run business(es), established Citizenship, Titles, and various other info. 'Achievements' could be shown on the card (and auto-updated) The 'Cards' can be added to a Players Bulletin Board, or be part of their 'diary'/appointments data. Of course they are available for printing in the real world (nifty idea for that tactile reality ... Come to think of it, most of these paperine Assets could be output into the Players reality space, to have with/beside them to help break through that "fourth wall"). Cards can be used as Props for Missions (so have a generic Auto-Generator for these ...). Cards and letters, memos and newspaper ads, billboard signs and phone calls can all serve as Mission initiators/activators/clues. - Note - 3D printing will be much more widespread and common in the coming decade, and I would have any/all Assets in the game be 'D-Printable' (you saw the term HERE first !!!!!!) for any Player that wishes to (a "posing" program to generate the required 3D printer directives for all in-game objects - AND various Players can be counted upon to create these Tools - I have no doubt of THAT). --- --- --- 'Advertisements Mailed to Players (and NOT any #$%^ game STORE Advertisements) ' : When did that (in-game advert spamming) start in the Real World ? Mailed Advertisements .... Whole huge catalogs were a mainstay (real world) way back in time - Sears Roebuck(1895 produced a 532-page catalog), Montgomery Ward (Monkey Ward) so regular that Mid-Westerners systematically used them (their pages) for toilet paper in their outhouses ...) Mailers "Junk Mail" - existing since the invention of the Printing Press, Cheap paper and Postal Transportation. (NOTE - have filtering options for Players in game Mail) --- --- --- 'WHERE THE FUCK DO YOU GET ALL THESE IDEAS (and WHY do you think people are interested in them ?) ' : BioShock Rapture was built around the idea of Real World people (and their society) being transported to a microcosm of an Underwater City - and thus was a reflection of the World circa 1945-1950. Much would be the same (with a bias towards styles from Ryan's formative years in the 20s -- hence the Art Deco theme). And then THAT being subjected to the 'SHOCK' of the genetic technology advancements (and some accelerated technologies), and then the reaction and results of a Social Upheaval that would destroy OUR modern World - and HOW Rapture survived and now was being restored. I see real world aspects and think : How is that relevant to Rapture ? And I compose a blurb mentioning that aspect to help fill in the Theoretical Game World you would WANT in a BioShock MMORPG. --- --- --- '''Bioshock Infinite BS : A Revolting Mind : A sad story about a sociopath female criminal scooped up by Fink's Prison 'Rentals', and a botched Lobotomy and the delusional mental world that resulted. Most amusing scene was of the two Crackers telling Miss Solomon Grundy (as Daisy was calling herself at that point) that she should let that whitey Elizabeth just kill her for "the good of all" ... In reality (in Infinite BS), Daisy Fitzroy is the same as Comstock, her supposed intelligence incapable of getting her past hatred and revenge. Her solutions are to destroy, and not much else. Amusing (and possible with the MMORPG system and some dedicated creative Players) would be a Columbia run by Daisy Fitzroy, which would be a mirror image of the one Comstock ran. --- --- Barrel with "Provisions" Written on it as a Label ... : ''' What do you expect from a delusional dreamscape of a half-lobotomized escapee from a Mental Asylum ? I'm talking about Elizabeth, here ... Like in Rapture with Jack and Delta and Sigma (all subjected to previous and on-going mind warping influences) - shaping their (And OUR in-game) perceptions skewing what WE get to see. Booker may simply be at Coney Island, spaced out on his Toothache-Medicine-induced Fever Dream and interacting with various annoying fellow customers (those ones with a British accent particularly) and on the Rollercoaster, the Shooting Gallery, and all that strangeness in the "Fun House". It would explain things more simply and logically than that warped delusional plot Ken Levine gave us. --- --- '''The Idolatry in Columbia : Absurd and Ridiculous (or shear ignorance if its seriously presented as represenatively 'historic') to think what is shown in the (Infinite BS) game has ANYTHING to do with Christianity. Might as well have tickets sold to "Lick the Prophets Arse to obtain Grace", etc... IF you wanted to belittle real religion. Delusional writers, much ? Demented Ideology, much ? --- --- A Momento : 1969 BS3 'Still Alive' Ryan had Atlas/Fontaine's Splice-distorted skull on his desk, and kept paperclips in it... Plans for a small "Museum of the Parasites" to be built in New Rapture with skull as one exhibit. To include a 'Wall of "Have You Seen Me"' with all those photographs of people Atlas and his thugs murdered. --- --- Intentional Chaos : It is not impossible or improbable that Fontaine intentionally made his ADAM products addictive, or that he was much concerned with the side-effects on his customers. Even if he produced only part of Rapture's entire consumption of ADAM products, this being true could have significant effects. It would have been poetic for Fontaine or Atlas to be killed by an insane uncontrollable Splicer his product had created. (Think of all the various workers and underling be abused who WOULD WANT revenge, and now with their Plasmids would have had the power and be unhindered/uninhibited via ADAM's mental effects). --- --- Oil for Rapture : Deep Sea Drilling projects done by Surface-based Ryan Industries may have been a possible source of Petroleum products for Rapture. Oil deposits exist some 500+ miles away, north of Iceland. 'Test' holes drilled there by the Surface entity in early 50s might have been covertly tapped into. It is still a long way to transport bulk oil by submarine, and the oil might be best used for lubricants and plastics rather than as fuel. --- --- Comedy Act in New Rapture Night Club : Acts composed by Players (Monologue scripting, Dialog if multiple, stage direction for visuals, props, etc...) Yet another Asset to fill out MMORPG game Content (and a treasure trove for creative Players). A bit simpler to create (but maybe harder to compose as 'funny') using the tools routinely used to create the talking (canned scene) segments of Missions, and the Rapturite NPC's everyday doings (short scripted segments). --- --- Golden Age Rapture Furnishing : ''' Stuff seen in Olympus Heights was quite pathetic (... detail limitations of Bioshock's game engine) only justified if alot of the furnishings were simply stolen/burned (to keep warm/dry) once the Civil War Chaos started and the occupants were no longer there to safeguard their stuff. Art Deco isn't just architecture, and there would be lots and lots of interior items. Contests for 'Creators' might be held to see who can have a room most crammed tastefully with different Art Deco stuff. --- --- '''Player Diary/Daybook Interface : To track and organize game activities/projects and useful info (similar to that Flash interface in Something In The Sea, except easier/faster and Player modifiable/markable). With accumulations, Search features would this probably be useful. *Markers (highlighters so Players can mark things of interest or visually classify) *Memos (all those things of interest coming out of City Hall) *Contacts/Bills (business stuff) *Maps (standard info and clue stuff obtained in their adventures) *Lists (text .. ie, Things To Do Items to obtain, Tasks that need to be done) *Mail (incoming mail, copies of sent, *Calenders (various Player events and days of interest) *Documents (unfortunately a City cannot operate without paperwork) *Notes (Players own Postit Notes) *Business Cards (of various businesses/Players the Player deals with) *Photos/Drawings/Blueprints (tech info for various projects, or camera snapshots of interesting things) *Newspaper/Magazine articles/advertisements (old and new stuff of interest the player keeps clipping of) --- --- Jive Text Converter/Generator : (Programming) Produces Genetic Gibberish content to fill documents (unimportant filler), etc... Flavors of types : Newspaper/Magazine articles for filler in old newspapers, Official documents, Books, Technical Papers. Players (Creators) expand the mutation patterns/rules and verbiage so the stuff isn't as repetitive. Uses current content from game situation (like recent New Rapture City News) can be employed and then mutated sufficiently. Probably some highlighting scheme to tell the player its only 'filler'. --- --- Why Are MY Rapture's Level Map Drawn Building Walls So Thick ? Depth 600 feet (my proposed base depth for much of Rapture), 14 lb/sqin pressure PER each 30 feet of depth ... (do the math) Thickness allows for compression strength to be utilized for the bulk materials (which despite mention of steel and aluminum) which are mostly reinforced concrete. The Ocean pushes in on the large expanses of outer surface with great pressure, and that force has to be supported to allow maintaining the air space within the shell at sea level pressure. Interior struts and unseen (in floorplans) thick floor plates across the whole widths of buildings allows the massive force to push against the opposite outer wall (compressing the supports between them). You cannot have any shell cracks because water will shoot through (so fast) under that pressure and quickly fill any air space (the air will compress to 1/20th of its volume even if the leak is in the floor and a bubble is formed above) Rapture is supposed to (was designed to) last for many decades, so it would be overbuilt to handle structural deterioration which eventually would overcoming the pressure-proof design. Ongoing repairs by the Maintenance Cyborgs (Big Daddy predecessors) helps to hold off structural failure. --- --- --- Man The Barricades !!! ' : In BioShock, you couldn't pile up objects/props (picked up/positioned/dropped with Telekinesis) to make effective barricades (the NPCs just walk right through them). In the MMORPG, the Physics Engine (part of the game program handling physical interactions between objects) would have higher detail and handle all objects (there are no static objects in the MMORPG) more realistically. Of course static defenses have their limitations. Enemies can go around/over them, and use them for cover like you can. The Player's object manipulation interface (pickup/drop) won't be that much better than what you could do in the Solo games, so their tediousness would be the same (maybe the Team NPCs could do a better job -- their AI could easily be programmed to do that, with a little player direction.) --- --- '''Player Computer Graphics Target Software and Hardware : ' The MMORPG would be made sometime in the future, so could make use of advances in the available graphics hardware and software. The (MMORPG spec) described greater numbers of objects, detail, interactions and effects would overstress current high-end PCs. But like most MMORPG, you have to accept (for the customers) some medium level of Client machine Computer performance to maximize the number of Players who can have an acceptable game experience (Adjustable higher/lower settings can mitigate this somewhat). It goes the same way with the MMORPG's add-on Tablet/Smartphone elements, which likewise constantly have been having improving Graphics/basic improvements. --- --- 'SPECULATION ? "We no need no Speculation" (google "Treasure of The Sierra Madre") : ' Yes, we do, if you want BioShock Rapture to reach its full potential (the Solo games plots/settings were biased/vague/contrived/illogical). I add reason/logic/cohesion to scattered facts and vague statements (which required speculation for the often scatalogical 'clues', anyway). We only got bits/views of Rapture at just a few limited vignettes AFTER things have become a mess. How would Rapture be BEFORE ever have grown/operated (for more than a decade) for us to see its shadowy remnants in the games??? This isn't supposed to be that absurd Fantasy that Infinite BS unfortunately gegenerated into. BioShock Rapture was Sci-Fi, its setting based on the world of the late 40s -- largely the same as America had existed at that time. Ryan tossed out the ruinous socialism, but what was left was largely the same base society/technological setting. - '''"Hey man, Like that's your opinion ..." -- the Dude goes to Rapture. --- --- Sofia Lamb was attempting to reorder the whole World, reprogram humankind, yet she couldn't even get her minions to slap a new coat of paint on her HQ (at Persephone). --- --- Splicers Are Really Nice Once You Get To Know Them... : Players have more dealings with Splicers besides just Firefights * There is no 1000 ADAM Bounty on your head like there was with Jack (Hmmm - If the Pheromone thing worked, would that even have been necessary ??) * Yoda-like Splicer who you learn stuff from (bring him Potato Chips and he will lay his Wisdom at Your Feet) ??? * You can figure that the real crazy (dangerous) ones would have eaten their own heads by now, so the ones left were more marginally insane. * Trading - Splicers usually know where 'The Good Stuff' is and can supply some things otherwise unavailable. They are interested in things YOU can get which they can't. * Not all Splicers went insane or were maimed into madness. Many just live out there trying to Survive. --- --- --- Burial at Sea's Huge Interiors ' : Same style as 'airy' Fantasy Columbia - EXCEPT that Rapture isn't supposed to be so airy/voluminous. The few props and furniture bits present in so much open space looks terribly empty. The original games were more closed-in (as it would be in a place where space cost money and had to be paid for). The game developers just didn't get it. Just looking at a real world store might've given them a clue. Big ISN'T better, when its not supposed to be. --- --- --- '''Research Camera (model Jack got) ' : The usual damage bonus info enhancement was some kind of tactic information tipping you off to target vulnerabilities (type of effective Ammo, or where to hit them, etc..) Though that general info could just as well been in a "Killing Denizens of Rapture for Dummies" pamphlet. Ryan may have had this model made up to assist his Security Forces identify and combat the Splicers causing such disruption/destruction in Rapture. For its 'smarts', likely the camera has a tie-in to 'The Thinker' (or somesuch central database/pattern digester) to do the analysis ... The 'Tonic' output would be a bit odd as it makes/allows a genetic change to you (without asking) which would have to be some individualized customization for it not to be a general 'product' (and simply offered at the Gatherers Garden machine). But, yes a very (too) sophisticated device to do stuff like that (maybe again its just a simple nucleotide sequencer (Heh, yeah, 'simple' - like making an A-bomb out of paper clips and bottlecaps) being fed instructions from a far off computer). They would have to come up with some non-technological explanation for much of the Research Cameras's abilities, as it was a bit of a stretch for them to have it in BioShock's Sci-Fi universe. It was a 'neat to have' game element divorced from logical period technology. -- The Genetic Research Camera itself could have ADAM-based genetic technology in it, which is more than Processing of 'Light images' - I don't like Psi stuff for Sci-Fi, but there are potential Real World equivalents that might deal with detecting brainwaves (electro-magnetics), etc... Various 'tissue' based biological components could have been incorporated into it. (I've talked of having tiny TV cameras using slug-eye components and computers based on SeaSlug brain tissue elsewhere, to make up the 40 year micro-electronics tech gap). Reading DNA from a distance is a pretty neat trick to do (CANNOT be done today). In the game they already talk about the 'genetic key' scanner technology that the Security Scanners and various Locks used (though in the book, it was a Friend/Foe electronic flasher ID a person carried). Maybe it was just an Appearance Profiling system that determined basic known traits for various Splicer types... Taking 'smell' samples from a distance is within the realm of possibility. Various bio-chemicals emanating from various known types of Splicers (or their tissue mods) might be sufficient clue to identify the target type. Dogs can do things like this with their noses, so something like does have an existing biological analogy. - The main thing (for BioShock) was introducing another game element that breaks up 'There is an Enemy - just Shoot him' mechanics of the game. For the MMORPG, taking picture of not just the NPCs but also landmarks could be something also like that (mapping or somesuch). --- --- --- ADD TO '''The Regurgitation That Is Infinite BS : The Songbird - ever see anything that was more obviously a stretch to replicate/clone/recycle a game element which just turned more and more ridiculous and pathetic. The iconic Big Daddies had personality and serious interactions with the Player, while the 'Songbirds' interactions were all Canned Clip-scene-ish (so much easier/cheaper to program/prerecord that way than to have to do flexible interactions). It was reduced to a mere plot prop, when it was originally (or potentially) supposed to be a more fundamental component to the gameplay (proper boss fight, etc...). Seems it was more successful as part of the HYPED game advertisements than its application (a sad joke) in the game. (Like with various film franchises, it may have been more oriented to plushie/model side-sale production ?) --- --- Reason Why I Have the MMORPG Timed (Set) Fairly Soon After BS2 : Things just can't hold together that much longer (without concerted maintenance "The Cold Dark Wet Tomb" would become a reality), and sufficient people need to be still alive. If it was to happen at an earlier time, then an organization this big would have destroyed Lamb's little collective (and after BS2 there is a power vacuum in the quarter of city where Lamb had been and plenty of mess to clean up). The Outside World's developing (military) technology would soon find Rapture New Little Sisters exist without having to justifying restocking them yet again (they grow so fast...) --- --- --- 'A Kodak Brownie Camera for Booker (which he never had) ' : Booker should have a Kodak Brownie Box Camera to take some pictures with. No, not a Genetic Research Camera (though his pix from the "Rogue Floating City" might sell well in that era's equivalent of the National Inquirer). Might've been nice to have the Player (Booker) take some 'snaps' when they (Luteces ?) want him to, and it produces some era-like Sepia-Tone pictures in the Player's game directory (also viewable via the in-game interface). Gives the Player something to do when not under a hail of bullets - maybe have a point system for taking (good) picture of the more unusual things (The Big Bird, various landmarks, etc...) Invented in 1900, but I don't think there is a Kodak shop in Columbia, so Booker probably had to bring it along with him (standard 'Pinkerton'/P.I. tool). http://www.brownie-camera.com/ They were an easy-to-handle size, hand-held, simple. Would require a 'largish' pocket... The box brownie was pretty revolutionary as a consumer item - you actually didn't change the film yourself, and instead mailed it back to the company, who processed it and sent a replacement back to you reloaded with a roll of film enough for something like 100 shots. They even sometimes gave the cameras away for Free - you paid for the film/processing to Kodak of course. The real Brownie Camera was quite small/portable and rugged (and easy to use) -- it was what made it photography popular and a consumer success. - Maybe you could make 'points' with the games factions by giving them evidence for their propaganda (for some kind of useful remuneration of course). (Sorry the Infinite BS linear plot wasn't "sandboxy" enuf for this). or Have a side score (Achievement) with part of the job Booker was hired for being to get pictures of Columbia as evidence for some official action to be taken (US Government or whoever) -- or somesuch. Maybe to be able to decide if they should hire the very expensive League of Extraordinary Gentlemen to handle this 'Columbia' problem...... A side objective of documenting Columbia for the Government(/interested parties), and the Perps onboard it. Of course for Infinite BS - The MAGIC Brownie Camera - to fit with their turn towards fantasy and magic. Perhaps (to be equivalent to the Research Camera's game function) a pair of ordinary binoculars that allow Booker to "spot the weakness" of his opponents ???? Where there is imagination, there is a way. (Except in a dumbed-down slipshod sequel) . .